Wildcat strike deals Cablevision second blow

A week after several hundred Cablevision technicians in Brooklyn voted to unionize, about 120 Bronx technicians employed by a contractor for the company briefly walked off their jobs in a wildcat strike Thursday.

The workers, who are employed by Corbel Installations and do installations for Cablevision in the Bronx and Westchester, said they downed their tools because of a new Corbel policy that lowers their wages 30% to about $35 for installing a “triple-play” package of phone, internet and television service.

The workers walked off their jobs Thursday morning and said they wanted to join the Communications Workers of America, the same union the Brooklyn technicians voted to join last week.

They elected a committee that met with management, and by late Thursday workers had negotiated a deal to return to work, with double pay for the rest of the day, the strikers said. They got the rate for installing triple pay packages bumped up to $40 and also won a bonus of up to $10 for each home visited and a $7 payout for multiple-room installations. The workers said they still hoped to unionize.

But their efforts could be complicated. David Weissman, a lawyer for Corbel, said that the workers have been organizing with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1430 for a year and a half and that two elections have already been held. Votes were not counted in the first election because of union objections, and the union lost the second vote in December. It is challenging those results, and its appeal is pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

“We couldn't even recognize CWA if we wanted to,” Mr. Weissman said, noting that once election results are certified, there's a one-year period before a new one can be held. “What happened today is an outgrowth of what's happening at Cablevision.”

Mr. Weissman filed an unfair labor practice charge with the labor board Thursday against the Communications Workers of America, alleging the union "instigated and organized an illegal strike and engaged in illegal picketing" in an attempt to organize the Corbel workers.

A Cablevision spokesman said the strike "is a matter for Corbel" and declined further comment. The electrical workers did not respond to a request for comment. Tim Dubnau, organizing director for Communications Workers of America District One, said that Corbel could recognize the union without an election. He said the drive was led by the workers and not the union, which was called to the site Thursday morning by technicians inspired by the Cablevision vote.

“This is not about inside baseball legal maneuvers,” Mr. Dubnau said. “Nothing can hide the fact that these workers are getting sub-poverty wages.”

Omar Hutchinson, one of the technicians who went on strike, said that workers were moved to act by the Cablevision vote in Brooklyn. He said he earns about $600, before taxes and without health insurance, for a seven-day week that can stretch to 50 or 60 hours.

“When you divide 50 hours inside 600 dollars, you're not getting anything as an hourly rate,” he said. “If you want to put something down on a house, nobody is going to give you a mortgage at that rate.”

He said the workers would fight until the company recognizes workers' rights. “That's the whole idea," he said. "I might lose my job, but that's the whole idea."

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